Nation IN BRIEF

Washington State

Union Workers End Two-Year Walkout

Union workers returned to their jobs at a Kaiser Aluminum Corp. plant for the first time since their September 1998 walkout stretched into a two-year labor dispute. Two hours after replacement workers ended their final shift at Kaiser's Mead aluminum smelter near Spokane, Wash., the plant gates opened for United Steelworkers of America members to return to work. There were no problems during the transition, a Kaiser spokeswoman said. About two-thirds of the 950 union members who walked out two years ago were expected to return to the Mead plant.